Territory



(No Model.) I 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

J. O. DUNHAM. AUTOMATIC WAGON BRAKE.

No. 549,563. Patented Nov. 12,1895.

@1557 aivz/ 6 95.

(No Model.) 2 SheetsSheet 2. J. G. DUNHAM. AUTOMATIC WAGON BRAKE.

Patented Nov. 12; 1895.

HOTO-UTNUWASHINGI'OMDC UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH O. DUNHAM, OF NORMAN, OKLAHOMA TERRITORY.

AUTOMATIC VWAGON-BRA'KE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 549,563, dated November12, 1895. Application filed January 28, 1895. Serial No. 536,470. (Nomodel.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH O. DUNHAM, a citizen of the United States,residing atNorman, in the county of Cleveland, Oklahoma Territory, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic \Vagon-Brakes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, andexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention is an automatic wagon-brake; and it consists in the novelconstruction and arrangement of its parts.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a top plan view of a wagonwith my brake attachments applied thereto. v Fig. 2 is a side elevationof a wagon, showing my means of releasing the brake-shoes from contactwith the hind wheels. 7

The object of my invention is to produce an automatic brake that willautomatically brake a wagon when going downgrade without the necessityof the team holding back and to brake as it releases its grasp from thewheels when the draft is on and a brake that can be released by thedriver from the box.

My invention is described as follows:

A and B, respectively, represent the front and rear parts of therunning-gear.

0 represents the brake-bar, and a represents the brake-shoes.

To the rear part of the rear running-gear is secured two springs cl,which may be elliptical or in any other proper shape. To these springsare secured the rear ends of rods 6, the front ends of which arethreaded and pass through the bar 0, and on the threaded ends of theserods 6, and working against the front face of the brake-bar are nuts f.These nuts are provided with perforations, and the threaded ends of saidrods are also provided with perforations, so that safety-pins f may bepassed through said perforations to prevent the nuts from turning. Thepurpose in having the front ends of said rods e threaded and havingworking thereon threaded nuts f is to increase or decrease the tensionof the springs cl, thus lessening or increasing the friction of thebrake-shoes against the periphery of the wheels, so as to accommodatesaid friction to the sizeof the wagon or the weight of the load.

To the rear hounds are secured V-shaped rods it, their upper ends hsecured to the upper face of the hounds and passing pver and in front ofthe brake-bar 0, their lower ends it passing under said brake-bar andsecured to the lower face of the hounds. In the V- point of these barsis a perforation, to which is pivoted the outer ends of levers Q andinside of said pivotal points, about six or eight inches therefrom, areprojections t", their rear ends being secured to the brake-bar and theirfront ends pivoted to said levers 1'. Thus, as will be seen, theseV-shaped rods act not only as f ulcrums for the levers i but guides forthe brake-bar O. The inner ends of said levers are of considerablelength, each passing beyond the opposite side of the coupling-tongue,and to the ends of these levers are secured the rear ends of chains j,their front ends being secured to the hook or ring j in the rod 7o, thefront end of said rod being hooked in a link 7s, which passes around theking-bolt of the wagon, and to the front end of said link are securedthe rear ends of chains 1,

their front ends being secured to the doubletree m, and on the top ofthe tongue n is secured a strap 0, having a longitudinal slot 13, thetongue at being provided with a corresponding slot, and through thisslot 19, through the central perforation of the doubletree and throughthe corresponding slot in the tongue, runs the doubletree-pin, thusenabling the doubletree-pin to work backward and forward to the extentof the length of the slot 19.

The operation of my brake is as follows: The Springs (1, through therods 8 and the brake-bar 0, keep the brake-shoes o tight up In additionto the mechanism above described I have pivoted to the bottom and leftside of the wagon-body a lever B, and to the rear edge of said lever aresecured the front ends of chains r, while their rear ends are secured tothe front ends of the chainsj, and to the right-hand end of said leveris secured a rod S, the front end of which is secured to a usualbrake-rod mechanism T, and when the driver wishes to unbrake the wagonto back it, or for any other purpose, he pushes the brake-lever tbackward.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is

In an automatic wagon brake, consisting of the springs (l, rods (a,brake bar 0, nuts f,

JOSEPH (J. DUNIIAM. \Vitnesses LUCIOUs E. RIsK, BENJAMIM F. WILLIAMs.

